It's Starting!

We have plants! When winter lingers on it is always nice when we start onions as it gets us thinking about summer! It can't be too far off, right? Well...onions are such slow growers and are day length sensitive that they need to be started very early. Our greenhouse is not yet heated, so we start our onions in our basement under grow lights. We have storage, red, and sweet onions started as well as leeks and shallots. Hopefully we will have a nice onion crop this year!

Winter Tractor Work

Living on a farm often has unforeseen advantages. This winter has been particularly snowy and lucky for us, we have a tractor which was used to plow out our driveway! Hopefully all of the cold we've had will kill all the pests that live in the soil over the winter. That sure would be nice!

Winter On The Farm

With a few inches of snow on the ground we were able to tour the farm with our son via his sled. Here he poses in front of the broccoli patch. With the mild fall we had the broccoli just keep going and going and we never had a chance to mow it. Warm broccoli soup would have been a good idea after this sled ride.

Farm Intern Wanted

We are in the midst of one of our winter jobs - finding interns for the upcoming season! If you want to live and work organic farming, Mile Creek Farm is the place to be. We are seeking 2 interns from April through October to work side by side with us for the 2010 season. Duties will include seeding, planting, harvesting, weeding, and other crop maintenance. We provide housing, vegetables, eggs and a stipend. E-mail milecreekfarm@gmail.com for more info.

EGGS AT LAST!

After 18 weeks of raising our Golden Comet hens, they have started laying their eggs! These first few eggs have been small (as is normal for first eggs) but oh so delicious. Here is a picture of the eggs just after morning collection and then later as our lunch! The yolks are a bright yellow color--a sign that our birds are getting a healthy nutritious diet of grass and bugs. If you are interested in purchasing any eggs send us an e-mail at milecreekfarm@gmail.com.

Kale is one of the those vegetables that you get to enjoy the entire season. It is one of the first crops we bring to market and we still harvest off it long after we've stopped going to market. Here is a picture of our kale crop in the summer and one taken on Tuesday. If you look closely you can see were the stems were harvested off the stalks. Kale actually tastes better with the cooler weather and after the first frost it is sweeter. We were able to provide kale and other vegetables to some of our CSA members for Thanksgiving. The close up picture is just harvested kale ready to be portioned out to our customers. One of our favorite recipes is a kale potato gratin. It's very easy: create alternating layers of thinly sliced potato, onion, and blanched kale and top with milk. In between layers sprinkle with salt, pepper and tarragon and 2 tablespoons butter. Bake at 350 until potato is tender, about 45 minutes. Happy Thanksgiving!

Tractor Work

Ben had some tractor work to do to get the fields ready for the winter and I thought it would be fun for Evan to watch. After watching the tractor mow down 5 foot tall broom corn stalks and other crops, which was fun, Evan got to investigate the tractor's steering wheel, which was even more fun!